The Potion: A Ron and Hermione Mystery
by Salamon2
Summary: Harry Potter becomes deadly ill, and Madam Pomfrey says it’s due to an impossible to make potion. Ron and Hermione take up the job of finding out who did it. But can they solve the mystery without getting their feelings for each other tangled up? Chpt
1. Prologue: The After Affect

The Potion: A Ron and Hermione Mystery

Prologue: The After Affect

By Salamon2

Salamon: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and Salamon2 does not...

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Harry Potter becomes deadly ill, and Madam Pomfrey says it's due to an impossible to make potion.  Ron and Hermione take up the job of finding out who did it.  But can they solve the mystery without getting their feelings for each other tangled up?

~~~~~~~

            "Harry, you've been sitting here over that same piece of homework for nearly all evening.  I mean finishing your homework this early is good for your grades but no sleep is bad for you.  Go to bed" said Hermione.  It was Christmas break, and surprisingly Hermione had opted to stay this year.  And just as surprisingly Harry was just finishing his homework, and the second day of break was tomorrow, well, technically today, since it was past midnight.

            "Yeah, come on mate you can finish it tomorrow..." said Ron.  Harry stayed in the same position though, quill hovering from line to line checking are rechecking every sentence, after about a minute of it, he finally finished it and put it away, and put all of his belongs away.

            "Good Night Hermione!" said Ron

            "Night Ron... Night Harry..." said Hermione, as she went up her staircase to bed.

            "Night Hermione..." said Harry as she disappeared out of sight.  

"Harry, are you alright?" asked Ron

"Yeah, I think so... why do you ask?" asked Harry, as Ron felt his forehead.

"No fever... something must be wrong... finishing your homework early, and then correcting it, pretty soon you'll be Hermione!" said Ron, and Harry laughed at his joke, and they continued to their staircase, walked up it and went to bed. 

~~~~~

The next morning, however, Harry was not all that well.

            "He's been vomiting all morning" said Ron frantically to Professor McGonagall, who was helping him carry the sweating, puking Harry to the Hospital Wing, Hermione was running after them as fast as possible, trying to not slip in her puffy slippers, on the marble floor.

            "Any strange behavior, any last night?" asked the Professor, her flowing pink night gown flying halfway behind her, due to the speed they were walking at.  She had Harry's legs, Ron his arms, Harry vomited on the top step as they went down some stairs, and due to her haste, Hermione slipped on it, and almost fell down the stairs and into the group, but instead she caught herself and briskly followed, her night robe just over top of, and not tied over, her pajamas.

            "Yeah, he finished all of his homework last night" said Ron

            "Then there indeed is something wrong with him!" said Professor McGonagall and she quickened her pace.  They came into the Hospital Wing, and placed him on a bed.

            "MADAM POMFREY!" cried the professor, as Hermione ran inside the door.  She stood next to the shocked Ron, his hair all a mess, Night robe tied around him; she soon became shocked just looking at Harry.  Just a moment later Madam Pomfrey, and Professor McGonagall came towards the bed.  Madam Pomfrey gasped at Harry.

            "Oh no, Not this!" she said

            "What's wrong?" asked Professor McGonagall

            "I've only once seen this before; this is caused by a potion, basically impossible to make, The Waste Away Potion!" said Madam Pomfrey, and Hermione and Professor McGonagall looked at her with very frightened faces.

            "What does it do?" asked Ron

"It makes the person reject all food, and then makes the body extremely hungry, but if any food goes down at that stage, the body will just reject it again, the body then slowly eats away at the organs, and the muscles, until finally he'll die!  He'll just waste away into nothing!" said Madam Pomfrey

            "Is there anyway to reverse it?" asked Hermione

            "Yes, but I'll need a sample of the original potion in order to make it..." said the Nurse

            "Then Ron and I will search for who did this..." said Hermione, and Ron nodded in response.

            "How long do they have to search for the culprit?" asked the Professor.

            "I'd say until the end of the break" said Madam Pomfrey, who then left to get supplies.

            "If you two need any help, come to my office, or to Professor Dumbledore's, this year's password is Gumball" said Professor McGonagall, who then immediately left the two alone, next to the unconscious Harry.

            "Okay, we need to find out who did this, why they did it, where they did it, when they did it, and how they did it" said Hermione

            "Can we first change into our normal clothes Hermione, I'm sure it would look funny to see two prefects, running around in their night clothes" said Ron

            "You're right..." said Hermione, and they headed back to the dormitory to change, and then met inside the common room, after they had their robes on.

            "Alright, so we need to find who, why, where, when and how…" said Ron, remembering what Hermione said.

            "That's right... think hard of who..." said Hermione

            "Well... it could be an agent of _you know who or __you _know who _himself..." said Ron_

            "It's possible it could be Voldemort, well, more than possible, most likely... but who else could have done it?" said Hermione

            "Snape could have done it, he's hated Harry ever since the first day he met him for no reason at all, and he has the supplies ready and available to do it..." said Ron

            "I really doubt its Snape, he might really hate Harry but, I doubt he'd do anything to physically harm him... well, as long as Harry's a student here…" said Hermione

            "Malfoy could, he's in yours and Harry's N.E.W.T.s Potions class... or Crabbe and Goyle could have done it for him..." said Ron

(A/N: Yes, in this story, Harry brought his Potions grades up)

            "Malfoy could have but I doubt he could have found the time to, I mean Snape is really making us do a lot of homework..." said Hermione

            "He could have written instructions for Crabbe and Goyle to do it for him..." said Ron

            "They're too dumb to know a spider, from a fly!" said Hermione

            "Then who?" asked Ron

            "I don't know... when, did he start acting 'weird'?" asked Hermione

            "About a week ago, remember, he started off by eating less at the dinner table..." said Ron

            "And the Waste Away Potion takes at least a week to start taking affect..." said Hermione

            "Then, two weeks ago, would be the when... the sixth of December!" said Ron

            "What was going on back then?" said Hermione

            "There was the Creevy Brothers putting those Dung bombs outside the Prefects Bathroom... Hannah Abbot made them clean it up, and she helped too if I remember correctly... Susan Bones nearly crushed Professor Flicwick when she sent his desk flying at him by accident, which made him drop his potion from Professor Snape, I forget what the potion was for though, and she had to help clean that up... Ernie Macmillan had to clean up his potions supplies, after spilling them in Potions... Zacharias spilled his Pumpkin juice all over Harry and Lee..." said Ron

            "I mean concerning our suspects Ron!" said Hermione

            "Well, since you've been under a mountain of homework, I thought you might need a refreshing look at what's been happening while you're under that avalanche!" said Ron

            "Just continue... wait... Snape put out a potion in a bottle on his desk, and I remember Harry spilling it.  Snape was about to give him five detentions when he realized that Harry was actually cleaning up without him asking to" said Hermione

            "Was that after the sixth?" asked Ron

            "Just last Wednesday" said Hermione

            "Maybe the waste away potion makes you act out of character a little..." said Ron

            "Well, there's one way to find out..." said Hermione

            "Don't tell me... it involves a lot of reading... doesn't it..." said Ron

            "Yes..." said Hermione

            "Hold on while I get my pillow" said Ron as he got up, but before he could even get to the stairs of his dormitory, Hermione grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the common room and towards the library.


	2. Chapter 1: Getting Past the Big Words

The Potion: A Ron and Hermione Mystery

Chapter 1: Getting Past the Big Words

By Salamon2

Salamon: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and Salamon2 does not...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry Potter becomes deadly ill, and Madam Pomfrey says it's due to an impossible to make potion.  Ron and Hermione take up the job of finding out who did it.  But can they solve the mystery without getting their feelings for each other tangled up?

~~~~~~~

            "Hermione... this is the seventh book... can't we at least take a little break..." said Ron

            "No, besides... its only your second, and this is my fifth... together they make seven, but until you go through seven yourself, NO break... you hear me... this is life or death... for Harry's sake, even if you reach seven, which is highly unlikely going to happen today, just keep looking..." said Hermione

            "Alright..." said Ron giving in.  He kept turning the pages, carelessly stopping at one page, starring at it intently.

            "This one's no good... it just tells you how to make your physical features grotesque!  Green skin, warts, crooked noses, and that's only the half of it!" said Hermione slamming the book shut.

            "Hermione... I've found it..." said Ron quietly

            "YOU DID!" shouted Hermione, running to his side of the table

            "SHH!" shushed Madam Pierce

            "sorry" whispered Hermione, and she bent down over Ron's shoulder to read the page;

            _Magical Diseases, Wizard made, and Natural                                                            p125_

_            Waste Away Potion, The_

_            Description: An extremely difficult to make potion requiring certain types of bacteria to work properly. It makes the user slowly reject food, until they can't eat at all, then the body feeds on itself until a clean skeleton is left.  Other symptoms include high fever, hallucination, and behavior changes._

_            Ingredients:_

_            Dried Fecal Remains_

_            Citrus Acid_

_            Yeast_

_            Saprophytes_

"Not a good practical joke for a friend…" said Ron

            "To say the least…" said Hermione thinking of the grotesque results that could happen to Harry, she bit her lip worriedly.

            "It must be hard to get those bacteria…" said Ron

            "Yeast is pretty easy, it's in bread dough, and there is citrus acid in all fruit juices… but Dried Fecal Remains, and Saprophytes?  Even I don't know what they are…" said Hermione

            "That's it… that confirms it… if you don't know something, Harry's doomed!" said Ron, and Hermione starred at a nearby bookshelf.

            "Not necessarily…" said Hermione, a smirk coming across her face.

            "Oh no… not more reading?" asked Ron, a horrified look coming across his face.

            "I think it's time you and I took a look at Gilda's Wizarding Thesaurus…" said Hermione, literally dragging Ron to the nearby bookshelf.

            "Why did I have to get up this morning?" asked Ron, his eyes looking above, and his arms extended and aimed up.

~~~~~

            "Must find meaning of word…" moaned Hermione, as Ron chewed his candy apple he had gotten from the Dinning Hall, Hermione had a pile of food on a plate next to her, from Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.  Midnight was approaching, fast, and they had been kicked out of the Library by Madame Pierce, and were sitting in the comfortable chairs around a table in the Gryffindor Common Room. 

            "What word are you looking for?" asked Ron, his mouth half full of the apple.

            "Fecal…" said Hermione, and Ron snatched the book.  She tried to reach for it, but Ron's movements were too quick for her.

            "Here, you take a rest, I'll look… let some fresh eyes take a glance…" said Ron looking down the list of tiny words, and he saw it, one thousand nine hundred seventy-fourth word down.

            "Well?" asked Hermione impatiently.

            "Here it is… fecal… synonyms… see feces…" said Ron

            "DUNG!  ALL DAY, I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR DUNG! GINNY HAS ENOUGH DUNG BOMBS TO MAKE FRED AND GEORGE'S FORMER STOCKPILE LOOK TINY!" shouted Hermione

            "Whoa… don't wake up this half of the globe… and that was because they constantly used them…" said Ron, Hermione just rolled her eyes to this response.

            "Okay, we know that the potion needs fruit juice, yeast, dried dung, and something else…" said Hermione.

            "Oh, the other I recognized as a type of bacteria a while ago, found mostly in fungi…" said Hermione, digging in to her plate, forgetting her manners.  She picked up a large glass of Pumpkin Juice, swallowed and then sat back in the chair relaxing.

            "Okay, so I'll add mushrooms, and I take it you consider today, I mean yesterday a victory?" asked Ron.

            "Yes... I do Ron… I do…" said Hermione.  Ron bit his lip looking at the relaxed girl, the firelight reflected her shape.  This was the first time since the Yule Ball he had noticed how Hermione was a "Diamond in the Rough", and how underneath her workaholic behavior was a whole different person.  Ron turned away, shaking his head.  This was the same Hermione that was also a nit picky perfectionist most of the time… the Diamond only came out every now and then, and now would not be one of those times, unfortunately.  Ron closed the book and went up to bed, he had a feeling Hermione was planning something that would keep them busy, and most likely would require using a lot of energy tomorrow, and he'd probably need all the energy he could get.  He left the sleeping girl sleep in the arm chair.

~~~

            Ron walked down a corridor, he had to go somewhere, but where he could not remember where he had to go.  Oh well, he'd remember sooner or later.  He turned right, and then left, only the clicking of his heels filled the empty marble halls.  Something wasn't right, it was the middle of the day, and he should've seen someone else in the hallways, even if it was Winter Break.  Suddenly the sun vanished from the windows; it was the middle of the night, only the flickering torches provided light for him to see.  Up ahead he heard a struggle, he quickened his pace.  Just as he got to the place where the struggle sounds were taking place, he found nothing there at all.  Suddenly he saw something up ahead, he ran towards it, getting closer, and closer, but it still looked farther and farther away.  Just as he seemed to be there something made him stop, his legs wouldn't move at all, and the castle around him dissolved.

            "Help me Ron… Help me…" said a voice from somewhere not seen in his dream.

~~~

            Ron woke up in a cold sweat and at the foot of the bed was a ghostly white figure, who Ron was unable to determine was the person. 

            "Help me Ron… Help me… before it's too late…" said the white figure.

_To Be Continued…_

_Next: Chapter 2: Now it gets Serious_


End file.
